KALINA CALLS THE SHOTS

The Bulgarian princess had tongues wagging when she attended a relative's funeral recently. We take a look at the royal who marches to the beat of her own drum

- MARELIZE GRBICH

THE occasion was unusual enough the burial of a tsar of Bulgaria who'd been dead for 76 years.

Ferdinand I died in Germany where he'd controversially sided with the ruling party during World War 1 and Communist-ruled Bulgaria refused to allow his body to be returned to his homeland.

But it was always the tsar's wish to be laid to rest in the country of his birth-so when his body was finally released recently to the Vrana Palace in Sofia, the Bulgarian royal family gathered to pay their respects.

Yet it wasn't the funeral that had everyone talking: it was the presence of the princess of the southeastern European nation and all eyes were on her as she stood in solemn attendance with her husband and son.

Tongues wagged with cold cruelty. She looked like she'd been injecting something into her arms, some observers said. She was more like the beast than the beauty in Beauty and the Beast, others said. What was going on, people asked.

But Princess Kalina (52) shrugged off the critics. "I'm dedicated to training with weight loads and to body health," she said. "I'm an athlete."

Her husband, Spanish adventurer and explorer Antonio José Muñoz Valcárcel (or Kitín, as he's known), spoke out in defence of his wife.

"She's in excellent physical shape thanks to a healthy lifestyle, daily training and good nutrition," he said.

Kalina's appearance at the funeral has thrown the spotlight on the not-often-seen princess, who's the only daughter of Bulgaria's King Simeon and Queen Margarita and the youngest of their five children.

She's a fitness fanatic who trains with weights four days a week and runs for 30 minutes on the days she doesn't go to the gym.

She enjoys hiking in the mountains with her dog and loves skiing, paragliding and horse riding.

"If I don't exercise I don't feel good," she says.